By Penni J. D’Aulerio

It has been suggested that a good way to gain a greater understanding of the Gospel message is to imagine oneself in the scene being depicted. In the above Gospel, I picture myself working in a garden alongside a sister or close friend and having an itinerant preacher approach us with the wildest of suggestions: “Hey ladies—come with Me! I'll make a new kind of gardener out of you; instead of bringing up flowers and plants, I'll have you plant seeds for the Kingdom of God!” And in this perfect scene, I say nothing to my sister; I simply put down my trowel, take off my gloves and go slogging off, dutifully after the Lord.

I followed…

I followed?

I should say not!! Are you kidding me? First of all, obedience has never really been one of my strong suits. Not knowing who Jesus was and following blindly along anyway most certainly does not align with how I would have responded. With all due respect, modern times dictate that one has good reason to be suspicious and careful—leery, even—of strangers. Caution in this instance would have been in order.

As for the “not asking questions,” I cannot recall a time, even as a growing child, when I did not question everything! All was a great debate between me and my mother, and after said lengthy discussions, I would simply go and do things just the way I had wanted to, regardless of her advice or feelings. The lack of obedience and self-control exhibited in my early years is currently reinventing itself now in my adulthood through various addictions and issues that I struggle to keep under control. Had I learned obedience as a youngster, I would venture to say that some of my struggles would not even be a blip on my radar.

If I had only learned obedience.

What if, in the above Gospel scene, I did know who Jesus was? How would my answer then differ? How many times has my Lord approached me in the guise of a patient with a colorful past that is needful of extra care, and my response time was not as quick as it should have been? When my Lord has come to me in the form of my children, who perhaps failed to get their hamper out to the laundry room in a timely manner and needed something in a hurry so it had then become my problem?

How often I have lost my patience with the clerk in the check-out line who was only then, during my time to be checked out, learning her trade! If I cannot exhibit love, patience and understanding with my own family members, how then will I attract men and women for Jesus with a less than Christ-like attitude toward those who I am trying to “catch”?

There are times when I am certain it is His voice I am discerning, yet I still struggle with obediently heeding His direction. I dig my heels in the same way I did as a petulant child with my mother, much to His chagrin and, I am sure, much to my downfall.

If I fail to recognize Jesus in others, how is it that I will learn to distinguish His voice in order to be 100% obedient at His calling of my name?

How?

Perhaps I can start by meeting Him in the face of the poor as I change their sheets or assist in a bed bath for a post-operative patient, by listening to Him call in the cold of the night when a cough has kept one of my children awake well into the small hours of tomorrow. More so, by meeting Him in His Word to discern what He is trying to speak into my life and by praying Scriptures to determine what He is trying to breathe into my world in order that I may bear much fruit. By receiving Him, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist, as He is my Bread for the journey.

When I show obedience in doing these things with a greater degree of consistency, decide His will is better for my life than anything else I could ever dream of for myself, perform the most mundane of tasks He asks of me in the simplest of ways with a greater amount of love—readily and without hesitation—only then will I be able to imagine myself in the above Gospel account without scoffing, and only then will I be able to imagine myself with a willing and open enough spirit to unhesitatingly reply, “Yes, Lord!”

Penni is a self-proclaimed Neurotic Blog Hostess. You can find more of her musings at martha2.blogspot.com